The growth of security threats to systems accompanies the growth of VOIP services that provide you with a very convenient and cost effective tool for placing and receiving calls over the internet. To ensure safety of your conversations and information, it is necessary to find a VOIP service that can handle the various security threats and potential problems. Here are a few questions you should ask prospective VOIP service providers to ensure selection of the right service for your company and prevent security breaches.    

1. Is VoIP service vulnerable to a DNS attack?
Denial of service attacks can clog VoIP servers denying service to other users. Professional VoIP service providers protect against such attacks by using firewalls, redundant servers, and around-the-clock monitoring.

2. Can VoIP calls be intercepted by hackers?
Though not significant, there are always chances of hackers listening to your telephone conversations over the internet. To protect you from malicious eavesdropping, your VoIP service provider should use encryption tools.

3. If you use Encryption, does it Reduce Call Quality?
Processing time increases with encryption. The more difficult the encryption, the greater will the audio distractions like jitter, echo, and latency, on your call. Your VoIP service providers should adopt hardware and software solutions that make encryption transparent to service users.

4. How Do You Test VoIP Services Software against vulnerability to hacker attack?
To ensure creation of VoIP systems that will stand against attack from hackers, the systems must be tested by security experts for shortcomings and potential problems. Reputed vendors combine in-house testing and research with outside testing of VoIP systems, by security professional and specialists, to create highly secure systems for you.

5. How do you install patches and is there a cost involved in it?
Upgrade of VoIP services may bear unnecessary costs on you. Ask prospective vendors about distribution of patches and how their systems can be integrated with your company’s own software update protocol to keep costs at a minimum.

6. Can the stolen VoIP routers be disabled remotely?
A stolen VoIP router can create tremendous problems for your business through information leaks. Ask VoIP service providers about how they deal with stolen routers and whether they can be disabled remotely to keep your account information safe and intact. Never opt for a service that cannot guarantee security of your confidential information.

7. For added security, is it possible to make calls through the VPN?
If you need to keep your phone conversations private even from the phone company, opt for a VoIP service provider who allows you to call through virtual private networks. However, keeping all data within VPNs entails additional hardware and software expenses.

8. Is the VoIP Service vulnerable to Fraudsters and impersonators?
Scammers can hijack calls and impersonate customer service representatives to collect personal account information. Hackers may acquire access to an open port and re-sell minutes of your company’s VoIP account. To prevent these issues from creeping up, your VoIP service provider must regularly monitor VoIP service usage looking out for unusual activity or packet routing to countries with few known clients.

Even after hiring a service, it is important to ensure that you receive sufficient and upgraded security that can cope with newer safety threats over the internet. Create and maintain strong relationships with account representatives. Additionally, stay informed, keep in touch with your VoIP service provider and regularly check vendor blogs.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP ) is the technology that allows voice calls to travel over IP based data networks. VoIP has allowed consumers to use phone services like Skype to make free calls over the Internet.

VOIP Phone Systems

VOIP is becoming increasingly popular among small and mid sized businesses as well. A May 2009 VOIP review report estimated that 35 percent of American small and mid sized businesses have deployed VoIP phone systems to save costs.

A January 2010 VOIP review report suggests that those who have already taken the VOIP for small business route are satisfied with the return on investment. It concluded that: small and mid sized businesses feel comfortable using business VOIP in place of traditional voice services, but often use it strategically to minimize long distance phone charges.

Two types of VOIP phone services have emerged

A consumer VOIP phone service sends voice traffic over the Internet in the same way as data packets are sent. This is often fine for personal chats, but most businesses require something better. The issue with the standard protocol is that sometimes the Internet gets busy, so voice traffic can hit bottlenecks, and it becomes difficult to hear conversations. Also those standard connections are not secure.

To avoid these issues, many businesses opt to send their voice traffic over a private network or a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN is similar to a narrow tunnel through the Internet. It carries only its owner’s traffic so it is very secure, and is less likely to suffer from the sorts of bottlenecks that degrade voice traffic. Many business VOIP service providers offer affordable private network and VPN solutions and conversations conducted over these are generally indistinguishable from those carried over traditional PSTN lines.

VOIP Is More Than Just Inexpensive Calls

Before VOIP service came along, pretty much all companies used time division multiplexing (TDM) private branch exchanges (PBXs) to switch their calls. These were proprietary closed solutions. VOIP, on the other hand, is an open source technology. This means that a VOIP PBX can reside on almost any server and that anyone can build and customize applications for it. All this competition has driven down the cost of added services, so a company that implements business VOIP can also deploy a wide range of VOIP phone services that until recently would have been expensive to all except the large enterprises.

Choosing The Best VoIP Service Provider

As with all technology decision making, the key to success is to analyze your business needs first and then to find the right VOIP Service that can address those needs most cost effectively. When assessing VoIP service providers, it is important to be satisfied with the following:

• Is it a highly reliable service? Phone outages can be disastrous for any business
• Calling rates that work for the small business’ call volume and mix (local/long-distance/international)
• Additional value added services that are important to the small or mid sized business such as voice mail, conferencing and mobility.
• Is it secure.

VOIP phone systems have emerged as the preferred choice for small business communications, delivering an unmatched combination of increased productivity and lower costs. At this stage in the game, the question is no longer whether to switch, but how to transition to small business VOIP phone systems. 

Today’s business VOIP service providers sell unified communication ”solutions,”  and not phone systems. According to industry experts, finding a VOIP provider experienced in both voice and data communications is critical to realizing VOIP’s full potential. More than the phone equipment, a communications solution applies technology as a service to meet each client’s specific business needs. A VOIP migration is therefore more a matter of establishing a strong relationship with a VOIP service provider than purchasing a VOIP phone system.

Small business VOIP providers offer a number of options for migrating from a traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) system to VOIP. Take a look at some of the decisions small businesses face when selecting a VOIP provider.

1. On-Premise vs. Managed vs. Hosted VOIP. Today’s small businesses have a choice of three options:  on-premise, managed and hosted voip systems. On-premise VOIP systemsincluding phone euipment, servers and routers are all deployed and maintained by a company’s internal IT staff. The ideal customer for on-premise voip system is a business that can easily customize and configure it based on their business needs to achieve optimal performace.  With managed VOIP, an independent or third-party service provider offers the phone equipment, software, operations and expertise so that a business can get the benefits of VOIP without the costs, risks and headaches of an on-premise VOIP system. Managed VOIP is for businesses with limited IT resources and no desire to take on the maintenance headaches of On-Premise VOIP systems.  Hosted VOIP services rely on a service provider’s PBX equipment, server and routers to route a company’s voice calls and data. Hosted VOIP is ideal for small businesses with limited IT resources that are interested in taking advantage of the benefits of VOIP without the hefty price tag.
2. Customization. Flexibility is one of the hallmarks of VOIP. VOIP can work with existing networking gear, PSTN lines, and business software, helping businesses realize the full value of their current infrastructure. The best VOIP providers are willing to take advantage of this flexibility to develop a custom VOIP solution that mets your exact business needs.
3. Support. Relationship with a small business VOIP provider does not end with the purchase of  Business VOIP system. Evaluate service level agreements and ongoing support before selecting a VOIP provider. Many VOIP providers feature remote system maintenance capability, enabling immediate response to service issues.
4. Service Reliability. Business VOIP has matured since the days of voice echoing and dropped calls; today, most providers offer call fidelity on par with traditional PSTN service. Industry standards for service reliability are high–as one analyst comments, “people are used to ‘five nines’–99.999 percent uptime.” The best VOIP service providers adopt failover measures and Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring to ensure performance. In addition to appropriate bandwidth allocation, a reliable VOIP provider may offer hardware upgrades such as echo-cancelling VOIP PBX software and enhanced security features.
5. Features. Review advanced VOIP features as a point of comparison between VoIP providers. Many service plans come standard with advanced features such as auto attendant and “find me-follow me” call routing. Hosted VOIP providers may offer these features on a pay for usage basis, allowing clients to pay for only the features they use or need.
6. VOIP Costs. Last but not least, evaluate the VOIP costs between different providers. On-Premise VOIP systems often have a higer price tag, s they offer in-house control of the infrastructure and cost savings down the road. Managed VOIP and Hosted VOIP removes this barrier of entry, offering small and medium size businesses with pay-as-you-go subscription plans so they can take advantage of the benefits of VOIP.

 The VOIP service providers are skilled at developing VOIP solutions designed to accommodate small businesses of all sizes, structures, and stages of VOIP adoption so that every business can realize the value of VOIP services.

VOIP phones are no longer just a low cost alternative for small business and consumers. With the increase in adoption by large enterprises Business VOIP phone systems have come of age. The popularity of VOIP phone systems as a unified communications tool and its potential to transform businesses, both large and small, in the next decade is evident by the actions surrounding VOIP providers in 2009.

February 2009 saw the peer-to-peer VOIP provider Gizmo5 integrate Skype addresses with SIP calls. While talks with Skype were going through troubled waters, Google jumped in to acquire Gizmo5 for $30 million, expanding its customer base and giving Google Voice just what it lacked – PSTN links for inbound and outbound calls to real phones.

Business VOIP service providers saw double digit increase in sales in 2009 from 2008. This proves that more businesses are taking to VOIP to increase productivity while reducing costs. Industry experts predict VOIP will be the “technology and industry of this new decade” and will witness explosive growth from 2010-2020 with market penetration reaching 79% by 2013. US service providers offering hosted VOIP phones are seeing 43% year-over-year growth.

The ability to combine both the data and voice networks into a single network is a major economic driving force in the rapidly growing move to VOIP. In addition, many businesses have realized the wisdom of integrating VOIP with CRM solutions for improving customer satisfaction. They are equipping employees with VOIP phones to connect from remote locations, thereby increasing business productivity as well.

While VOIP is revolutionizing voice and data communications, it does represent some thorny security issues that need to be dealt with properly. Some of the challenges dogging VOIP are lack of high fidelity, audio quality, service failure due to network outages, security vulnerabilities such as caller hacking, Spam Over Internet Telephony (SPIT), spoofing, and Denial of Service (DoS).

Most VOIP providers are making big efforts to put adequate security measures into place. Most of them are not up to the level of reassuring customers fully, though. This is why it is important that you consider security as one of the factors when choosing VOIP for small business.

Business VOIP Phone Systems have evolved into “unified communications” tools  that simplify and integrate all forms of business communications—phone calls, faxes, voice mail, e-mail, web conferencing and more- and can be delivered via any medium and to any device. For example, one can receive a voice mail and choose to access it through email or receive it as an SMS text message on a cell phone.

When considering VOIP, the overall goal should be to optimize business processes, reduce the response time, manage information flows and eliminate media dependencies. For example, an important action that takes one day to complete but is received a day late, takes two days to complete. Unified communications efforts aim to reduce that delay as much as possible.

In addition, VOIP providers rave about the following benefits:

• Ability to rout phone calls over existing data networks to avoid the need for separate voice and data networks.
• Conference calling, IVR, call forwarding, automatic redialing, and caller ID features that traditional phone systems companies normally charge extra for, are available free of charge with VOIP phone systems.
• Reduced Costs – while regular telephone calls are billed by the minute, VOIP calls are billed per megabyte (MB) sent over the Internet.
• Transmit multiple phone calls over a single broadband connection without the need to add extra lines.
• Integration with other services available over the Internet, including video, web or audio conferencing, managing corporate address book etc.

The evolution of  business VOIP service providers into unified communications systems companies has helped businesses streamline information flow and reduce response times. Human delays are also minimized or eliminated, resulting in cost savings for the business. Unified communications also allows for more direct collaboration between co-workers and with suppliers and customers. This enables possible reductions in business travel, especially with video and web conferencing, reducing an organization’s carbon footprint.